Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-02-04
A Night in a Church.

Some years ago l was travelling on
horseback from Richmond toward Will
llamsburg, along the Old Stage Road,
when was overtaken by storm. 1t was
late in September, and the weather had
been delightful; bpt On this evening it had
gathered up with threatenings of an
equinoctial tempest, and had turned quito
chilly. pushed on, hoping to make my
next stopping place before the rain began
to fall, but by nightfall it became sudden
ly very dark, aud the lightning and thun-
der were terrific. The first big drops were
beginning to fall. and I thought no escape
from long ride in a drenching rain was
possible, when fishing of lightning
showed me an old ruined church, not far
from the road. put my horse into gal
lop, and reached it just as the rain became
violent. There was no door, and not
only enter I'd myself, but led my horse in.
hoping to keep him aud the saddle dry un-
til the storm had blown over.
The roof was ruin Gus, and the glare of
the lightning shone through. There was
no glass in the windows, and it was not
easy to find dry place. Yst in one corner,
pear the door, there was heap of dead
leaves, driven in by the summer winds,
and on these half reclned, looking out
al the storm.
It was desolate looking place. In the
churchyard the old messy gravestones
leaned this way and that, and title pools
of wafer began to form in the low places.
A plank from the weather boarding hung
down by one nail from the front of tie
church and clapped with hollow sound
against the wall. A leaf .ss old tree bent
over against the house, and with long
skeleton finger. tapped mysteriously at the
gable. and seemed to whisper that it
could tell dark things if it would-hlde-
| GUS horrible things. had recently been
seriously sick, and my nerves had not re-
! covered their full tone, and somehow the
! uncanny dfeariness of the place was de-
| pressing to nae. If had not dreaded the
effect of a long ride in wet clothes,
submitted to the gloom that began to
| press upon me. the chill blasts of the
storm seemed to go to the marrow of my
bones. l reused myself and tried to shake
l.off the weird inf1uerce of the place; L re-
cited to myself passages from Tam u
Shanter." and the ride Of that devil-may-
care hero by the witch haunted Church of
Alloway, and I hummed an old college
song to keep my spirits up.
Good God. what was that?
A low, shu ddering cry, more like terror
than pain, thrilled through the darkness
of the church. My pulse stood still. l
strained my ears, listening for the repeti-
fion. but no sound came, except the tap
more, and the patter of the rain. IN IN
sense.'' said to myself; lit WAS nothing
bnt the wind moaning through some Gre
vice of the old ruin." L knew tnaC my
nerves were unstrung, but my courage
was not gone.
| But my horse was not so easily rebuked
He stood trembling and staring with gias.
Sy eyes into the darkness. Horses see in
the dark better than men, and my horse
saw something that terrified him. I pat.
ted his neck and spoke soothingly to him
aud be soon became quiet This com
partnership with the horse diverted ~,
thoughts from the dreary surroundings
and strengthened me. looked out at the
gale, now at its 6ercest. The lightnlng
was awful. Every one must have noticed
how much more Intense is the power OF
vision during fash of lightning thar
during an equal time of daylight. 1t il
wonderful how much detail the eye viii
take in during one Of these small frac-
tions of a second. I was reading one Of
the gravestones sin Memory off, wheI
from behind another stone, not in the liz {
of vision, saw, OF thought that [ saw
out Of the corner Of the eye a TALL wifi {
down, and disappear. In another flash ]
looked directly DIT the stone, bat there was
nothing there. A dumb chill ran through
me. could not resist it. But sc5rnec
myself. 1t is nothing, said. buta phan
tasm, created by my excited nerves. TIE
lQoa OF my Snu lu0fIug dt guOSb, IL SAID Il
absurd. l shall laugh at it all, &c morrow
l have not the slightest belief il disembo.
died spirits, nor in witches, nor fou
fsnds, and my fancy shall not play me- any
prank.
W lille was talking thus to myself,
heard with startling distinctness, in the
church, a passage from All old hymn:
''Tis there We meet at Jesus feet,
We meet to part no more,"
ending with d screech Ut hideous laughter.
No delusion now certainly. + was a
CHASTITY diabolical fact, the laugh of a
devil, satirizng a Christian hymn. a
witch's Sabbath on an equinoctial night.
A cold sweat broke out upoI and /
felt mortal sickness Of feaes While l
stood tranfxed, striving to seesato the
gloom of the interior, vivid fleam
lightning shone through the roof ssld
dows, and / saw, standing in thI